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Answers to WTFWTK 2.24!

Toyguru has once again provided answers to your questions.
Thanks again to him for taking the time to answer these!
Check out his answers to your Round 24 questions!

This round of questions were selected by Mr. Shokoti,
Thanks to him for his help!

-------------------

1. Fneh: Has the success of the art book done anything to change Mattel's plans on releasing more MOTU material in print? Perhaps the collection of classic mini-comics or even new mini-comics to be included with the figures?

We are looking into some plans for the mini comics but nothing to announce yet. We will definitely not be new pack in mini comics right now however. Fans were very clear they prefer alt. heads and extra accessories!

It was the fans at SDCC 2008 who voted for this live at our fan panel. Every year we let the fans at SDCC vote for something in the line. In 2008 fans voted for heads over mini comics, in 2009 fans voted for unflocked Panthor. Who knows what we will let fans vote on in 2010...the best way is to be at our fan panel! This is a special reward for those who come out, they actually get to affect the line in a permanent way

2. midor: Will King Grayskull's bronze statue variant be re-released? Perhaps as a bonus figure the same month King Grayskull is reissued?

There are no plans at this time to re-release this SDCC variant.

3. King Tycho: Is there any possibility of releasing a cardboard Snake Mountain, similar to the box that King Grayskull came in, perhaps as a mail-away, a club exclusive or even with a Skeletor re-release or another villain?

It could happen, but there are no plans right now.

4. The.Idea.of.Evil: Many fans hoped for Teela to be more curvacious than she ended up, even after adjustments were made. Considering this, plus all the different females that are in the POP line, will the 4H be creating multiple body sculpts for the female figures that have more (and sometimes less) curves to them? Or will there be only one standard body type just with differences in feet and heads?

There will be one standard buck for the females in the line. It is the same buck for Teela and Adora.

5. Toymaker: With the release of the Green Goddess, will we be seeing other comic characters in this line, from both the original mini-comics and the MVC comic series?

Yes. It is a possibility.

6. King Kahn: While specific characters cannot be named for each month, can we get a month by month run down on if they are good/evil/neutral?
For example:
June - good character
July - bad character
August - bad character
September - neutral/other

Too much of 2010 is in flux right now for us to comment on this. Once we see how many bonus characters we are doing we’ll have a better understanding of the 2010 line up. Right now we are waiting to see how Zodak and Goddess perform before looking at the rest of 2010.

7. Analog Jote: In He-Ro's bio, there is a mention of "The Overlords of the Timeless Dimension on Trolla", while in Zodac's bio he is recruited by "The Overlords on Trolla." Are there two different groups called The Overlords, or are they one and the same? And if they are the same, how does the Timeless Dimension play into the story?

More will be revealed in time. Orko’s bio should help a lot.

8. Snake Hunter: In regards to the falcon included with Teela, there is some debate if this is Zoar as the falcon form of the Sorceress or Zoar as a Winged Fighter like in the original toy. What is the official MOTUC bio of this character? And will it ever come with the armor and the perch like the original Zoar toy, maybe even in the green concept color rather than the red color that was produced?

This is Zoar the fighting falcon. The Sorceress if very powerful. She can change shape and color if she wants. And yes, we do have plans to release all of the perches eventually.

9. grenadaspice: In a recent interview that you did with Fwoosh, you stated that it was requested that the Four Horsemen include at least a 2nd accessory or a 2nd head sculpt with all the figures. If that is the case, why do we have some figures that only come with one accessory? For example: Zodac (laser gun), Zodak (power staff), Beast Man (whip), or even Stratos who doesn't come with any accessories at all?

This isn’t an all encompassing rule. In the case of Stratos, he was an early figure before we decided on the two accessory direction.

10. Jay Bell: If a Cringer figure is ever made, will he likely be a retool of Battle Cat or an entirely new sculpt?

annoying about the panthor thing. in fact the voting at SDCC is IMO a mistake, as it's a small population of MOTU fans. it is a fine way to guage initial interest but not to make a solid decision. Reminds me (slightly) of the 200X reliance on focus groups vs the fan community. and we all know how that ended.

also, shouldn't the female body be called a Doe? buck just doesn't sound right.

1. Fneh: Has the success of the art book done anything to change Mattel's plans on releasing more MOTU material in print? Perhaps the collection of classic mini-comics or even new mini-comics to be included with the figures?

We are looking into some plans for the mini comics but nothing to announce yet. We will definitely not be new pack in mini comics right now however. Fans were very clear they prefer alt. heads and extra accessories!

It was the fans at SDCC 2008 who voted for this live at our fan panel. Every year we let the fans at SDCC vote for something in the line. In 2008 fans voted for heads over mini comics, in 2009 fans voted for unflocked Panthor. Who knows what we will let fans vote on in 2010...the best way is to be at our fan panel! This is a special reward for those who come out, they actually get to affect the line in a permanent way

Hold the phone...

You mean to say that EACH SDCC, there will be some "unofficial official vote" in which the convention-goers enact some major change in the line?!! Instead of thousands of people voting on the.org or even Mattycollector's Facebook, the fate of some aspect of the line is decided on the fly and on the spot by like a hundred people who attend the panel?

This is Zoar the fighting falcon. The Sorceress if very powerful. She can change shape and color if she wants. And yes, we do have plans to release all of the perches eventually.

No wonder she's pink in The Story of She-Ra.

Anyhow, at one time Mattel said they were planning to eventually get to The Star Sisters... I just don't know how they're going to accomplish Tallstar with the standard female doe/buck... whatever. For example, her forearms, shoulders etc. are totally different on her. The only thing they may be able to re-use is the hands. heh

Originally Posted by MegaGearMax

Hold the phone...

You mean to say that EACH SDCC, there will be some "unofficial official vote" in which the convention-goers enact some major change in the line?!! Instead of thousands of people voting on the.org or even Mattycollector's Facebook, the fate of some aspect of the line is decided on the fly and on the spot by like a hundred people who attend the panel?

I really don't agree to this.

I know! There's way more fans voting online than who show up at the convention panel. Not fair at all.

From the crumbs Mattel agreed to give us, it seems that A CRINGER FIGURE MIGHT BE A STRONG POSSIBILITY ! Yay !

Another good news is the mini-comics and MVP characters are possible ! Now is the right time to open a thread about this (if this wasn't done yet) !

The Zoar answer was ridiculous, IMO (The Sorceress is very powerful, so she can, change Zoar's colours... yeah, right !).

And the "SDCC vote" thing is also completely irrelevant. So what if a hundred people with no MOTU background whatsoever give the line a bad direction ?
A vote must be made with THOUSANDS of fans, ONLINE (he-man.org, facebook, fwoosh...) AND during SDCC !

Funny how 2010 is "too much in flux" for them to say anything... We all know that at this very moment, the 4 Horsemen have finished some sculpts ahead of time, at least till May or June 2010, I'd say (since July and SDCC, I guess they worked a lot, and we already knew what would happen till March 2010, so they must have finished some more characters, I bet !). Mattel should tell us the truth and say that they don't want to unveil what comes after March 2010 yet, instead of dishing up BS.

You mean to say that EACH SDCC, there will be some "unofficial official vote" in which the convention-goers enact some major change in the line?!! Instead of thousands of people voting on the.org or even Mattycollector's Facebook, the fate of some aspect of the line is decided on the fly and on the spot by like a hundred people who attend the panel?

I really don't agree to this.

Me neither. They should really do an online vote to give everyone supporting this line a chance to vote.

Heidi

"The most difficult thing is trying not to forget who you really want to be." - Nong Toom

Funny how 2010 is "too much in flux" for them to say anything... We all know that at this very moment, the 4 Horsemen have finished some sculpts ahead of time, at least till May or June 2010, I'd say (since July and SDCC, I guess they worked a lot, and we already knew what would happen till March 2010, so they must have finished some more characters, I bet !). Mattel should tell us the truth and say that they don't want to unveil what comes after March 2010 yet, instead of dishing up BS.

the angry mob mentality towards mattel astounds me.

He basically said that if zodak and green goddess don't sell, the bonus figures planned for 2010 will take up the monthly slots and push the other figures back to 2011. They'll know which figures they want to release but are unable to say "we're releasing XX in YY month". We know the figures for the next 5 months. And know at least 2 others released in 2010 (orko and she-ra). Constant demands for mattel to tell you pre-production information is just ludicrous. They said they'll tell us 3 months ahead of release - not 4 months or 12 months.

and yeah, the SDCC vote sucks. Imagine if we ended up with chase figures because of an SDCC vote... These things should be done through the official site. It's alienating their customers. Using a poll based on about 0.01% of the fanbase is pretty poor when Matty must know how much publicity they'd get from an online poll on their site

I think ToyGuru missed (intentionally or not) half of the first question. I don't think Fneh meant that the art/mini-comics should be necessarely packed with the figures. The mini-comics and art-stuff could be sold separately on MattyCollector and I think they'd still sell really well. And I can't see how producing them would in that case affect the tooling costs reserved for the figures.

"The most difficult thing is trying not to forget who you really want to be." - Nong Toom

1. Fneh: Has the success of the art book done anything to change Mattel's plans on releasing more MOTU material in print? Perhaps the collection of classic mini-comics or even new mini-comics to be included with the figures?

We are looking into some plans for the mini comics but nothing to announce yet. We will definitely not be new pack in mini comics right now however. Fans were very clear they prefer alt. heads and extra accessories!

It was the fans at SDCC 2008 who voted for this live at our fan panel. Every year we let the fans at SDCC vote for something in the line. In 2008 fans voted for heads over mini comics, in 2009 fans voted for unflocked Panthor. Who knows what we will let fans vote on in 2010...the best way is to be at our fan panel! This is a special reward for those who come out, they actually get to affect the line in a permanent way

WOW!!

10. Jay Bell: If a Cringer figure is ever made, will he likely be a retool of Battle Cat or an entirely new sculpt?

I think ToyGuru missed (intentionally or not) half of the first question. I don't think Fneh meant that the art/mini-comics should be necessarely packed with the figures. The mini-comics and art-stuff could be sold separately on MattyCollector and I think they'd still sell really well. And I can't see how producing them would in that case affect the tooling costs reserved for the figures.

yeah. I meant about a collection of mini comics. He did answer that. He just didn't phrase it brilliantly. I understood it that they're going to release something but there's nothing they can announce as yet

The Sorceress if very powerful. She can change shape and color if she wants.

Very interesting choice of words! saying "the Sorceress can change shape if she wants" is very dismissive of the idea that she changes into a falcon all the time. It almost is a warning that her changing into a falcon is not a given and not to expect it in her bio...

Only good info here is Cringer will get a unique sculpt.
That's very good news.

Originally Posted by MegaGearMax

Instead of thousands of people voting on the.org or even Mattycollector's Facebook, the fate of some aspect of the line is decided on the fly and on the spot by like a hundred people who attend the panel?

I really don't agree to this.

Totally agree with you.
People already have PLENTY of incentive to go to SDCC.

It's not like any MotU fans are gonna hop a plane next time just to be able to participate in these random votes.

The Sorceress changing shape and color sounds like a good way of introducing her vintage look and her MYP look both as legitimate looks for the same character, as well as an "out" for releasing variants down the line like an all-white Mini Comics version or a pink and white Mini Comics version.

I love hearing that Cringer will get a new sculpt. If they're smart, they'll re-use that body for Catra's cat form too - and they'll probably use it for a re-release of Beast Boy in the DCUC line or an accessory for a re-release of Catwoman. I can't wait to read Orko's bio - which would suggest that he's not going to be released as someone's accessory.

I'm not sure if Cringer would be suitable for a Catra sculpt. To truely be gringer, he should have a scaredy cat expression, which would be unsuitable for Catra, though they could have the same body, and different head pieces.

I wonder about the trolla stuff, i had figured the overlords of the timeless dimension, and the overlords on were the same, but as TG very pointedly didn't confirm that, maybe they ARE different.

well 2010 is in flux now, What will happen?
I'm so stoked about "We are looking into some plans for the mini comics " A Graphic Novel Collecting the mini comics would be great fun, provided its available to ALL.
This was a good WTFWTK, They all have been especially as of late.

Glad to hear Cringer would be a new sculpt, although I wish the answer had said he will be a new sculpt. Even better would be if he said we'd find out about Cringer when Prince Adam came out. That would make such an awesome 2-pack!